


Under the Summer Sun

by LeChatRouge673



Series: Thea's Song [25]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Modern AU, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2020-05-14 14:13:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19274965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeChatRouge673/pseuds/LeChatRouge673





	Under the Summer Sun

It was, in a word, unfair.

Normally, Cataline would have sooner jumped off a cliff than be outside in the summer heat, but this was hardly normal. On second thought, perhaps it was: Nathaniel had spent nearly every summer for the past ten years or so at Highever rather than in Amaranthine. She was not certain why she had thought maybe that would have changed now that they were coming home from university rather than high school, nor could she fault him for being thoughtful enough to volunteer to complete chores around the house while he stayed with them.

“Some view there, huh Catkin?”

Cat rolled her eyes as she turned to face her cousin, Thea, who was lounging lazily in a deck chair, sipping an iced tea and raising a single eyebrow over her sunglasses. She was also grinning like the cat who got the cream, which was rarely a good sign. The ‘view’ in question was Nathaniel, mowing the lawn and already sweating in the early morning sun.

“I didn’t realize you were interested,” Cat replied smoothly, earning an amused giggle from the younger girl, knowing full well Thea was nothing of the sort.

“He’s my best friend, Cat, but I am not blind.” She stood up gracefully and walked over to the deck railing, leaning up against it and managing to look bored and mischievous all at once. “He’s damn gorgeous, which is already becoming a problem.” She slipped her sunglasses off, and Cat could see Thea was frowning slightly.

“What in the world is that supposed to mean?”

Thea gave a delicate shrug. “He is my best friend,” she repeated. “More like my brother. No one is ever going to be good enough for him in my eyes. Well,” she threw a pointed glance in Cat’s direction, “ _Almost_ no one.”

Cat sighed, stealing Thea’s tea and taking a sip, wincing slightly at the bitterness. “Thea…”

“Sooner or later, unless you get your shit together-”

“Language, Thea,” Cat admonished more out of habit than anything else. Thea was all of seventeen and smart enough not to swear too much in front of her aunt. Thea wrinkled her nose slightly, then continued.

“As I was saying,” she pressed, “Unless the two of you get your _shit_ together and just kiss or something, I am going to start having to scare off potential girlfriends. Which, granted, would probably be grand fun, but I would greatly prefer the two of you just admit how you feel.”

“How _I_ feel,” Cat corrected. “He has never given me any indication that-”

“Hey, Nate!” Thea called over to their friend, who had just stopped the mower and was wiping his brow with his shirt and revealing far more of his chest than was probably healthy for Cat. “Stop teasing and just take it off,” she taunted him, and he grinned back at her. Much to Thea’s amusement and Cat’s chagrin, he complied, then promptly balled up the sweaty garment and tossed it at his best friend.

“Oh, _gross_ ,” Thea protested, but she was laughing. “Ew, Nate. You are the worst.”

He threw up his hands in a gesture of ‘what are you gonna do?’ and said something that Cat did not quite catch. She was impossibly distracted at the moment, and she could not help but wonder if he knew it, too.

Thea’s grin settled into a self-satisfied smile. “You’re welcome,” she murmured to Cat, then scampered off still holding Nate’s shirt hostage. Cat shook her head.

“You know she is probably going to do something awful with it now, yes? Maybe wash it with that bright red shirt dad bought her at the basketball game a couple months ago?”

Nate shrugged, his smile changing just slightly as he looked at her, though Cat could not quite pinpoint what the change was. She just knew it sent a shiver through her entire body and made her cheeks feel warm even under the summer sun. “No great loss,” he assured her. “I never wear anything I care about for stuff like this.” He stepped closer to the deck, and Cat was doing her level best to keep her breathing steady, praying her face was less flushed than it felt. She leaned further over the railing, her long ginger braid falling over her shoulder as he approached her.

“Cat?”

“Yes, Nate?”

“I-” He hesitated and took a step back, indecision clouding his eyes.

“DIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

A sudden shriek broke the tension as Thea came bounding around the side of the house with a water gun, blasting Nate square in his bare chest with a jet of water. Nathaniel laughed and gave a shout of his own, jogging away from Thea and her aquatic attack. What Cat could see that her cousin couldn’t, however, was that Nate’s retreat was actually rather strategic: he reached down and turned on the hose, snatching it up with reflexes that still left Cat reeling, and turned it on his best friend.

Thea turned on her heel and quickly dashed in the opposite direction, turning over her shoulder every so often to fire off another volley of water over her shoulder until she ran out of water and Nate ran out of hose length and they both collapsed on the grass, laughing. In that moment, Cat could not help but feel a sharp pang of jealousy. She knew Thea was honest when she said there was nothing, and would never be anything, between her and Nate, but Cat still deeply envied their easy friendship and how comfortable they were with each other.

“Cat, take mercy on a poor soul?”

Cat managed to summon a smile, then descended the steps and offered Nate a hand to help him up off the grass. He had barely made it to his feet before he wrapped her in a big bear hug, ensuring that she ended up soaked as well. Despite herself, Cat laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning back to look at him. The sunlight was casting his eyes silver, and when they met hers Cat thought her heart might very well beat out of her chest.

“I would apologize,” he teased lightly, “But if Thea had gotten to you first she probably would have done worse.”

“Then I appreciate your gallant efforts to make sure I only ended up _moderately_ soaked,” she laughed, then stepped back reluctantly, trying to convince herself she had simply imagined the way his hands had lingered at her waist. “Speaking of…” She looked around, but Thea had disappeared.

“Where did she get off too?”

 

* * *

 

 

Her hair was going to be an absolute disaster if she did not take a hairdryer to it soon, but she wanted to watch this play out. She had not been lying when she said Nate was becoming a problem: Thea was not known for her patience, but she was known for her temper, and already she and her best friend had had an epic row over one of his dates.

“They _still_ haven’t figured it out, have they?”

“Oh, they have,” Thea replied drily, accepting a fresh glass of iced tea from her uncle as he joined her at the kitchen window looking out over the backyard. “They simply have not figured out that the other has _also_ come to the same conclusion. It is growing very tiresome.”

She saw Bryce’s lips quirk up in a small smile. Thea knew he was amused by her tendency towards the dramatic. “You could just tell them, you know. They might be angry in the short term for your keeping secrets, and for breaking them, but it might be kinder in the end.”

Thea worried at her lower lip, brow furrowed as she considered. “You think I should?”

Her uncle sighed, placing an arm around her shoulders and giving them a squeeze. “I don’t know, little Shadow. They are both adults… void, let’s be honest: you are as well for all intents and purposes.”

“You’re just saying that so you can start charging me rent,” she grinned at him, and he laughed, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

“As I was saying,” he continued, “They are both adults. I do not think we can, or should, intervene, much as I would like to. That boy is going to be my son-in-law someday, or I’ll eat my hat.”

“Bryce, you don’t _wear_ hats,” Thea giggled, but her heart was troubled. She stared back out the window to where Cat and Nathaniel were still standing, but with far too much space between them. They were talking, but of course she hadn’t the slightest idea what they were saying. “Why can’t this just be simple?”

“Love rarely is, Thea,” he replied gently.

Thea looked up at him, annoyed at the hope she knew was in her eyes. “You really think they love each other?”

Bryce nodded slowly. “I do, Thea. Which is why I think it is all the more important we let whatever is going to happen, happen naturally.”

“You are aware patience is not exactly my strong suit, yes?”

He chuckled quietly. “So I have gathered. But trust me on this one. Besides, you seem to have had no end of entertainment driving off the other boys who have shown up at our doorstep.”

“It makes for great sport,” Thea conceded, a small smile curving at her lips. “And not a single one of them was good enough for her. You know that.”

“Not even close,” Bryce agreed. “And I appreciate you taking the brunt of her exasperation.”

Thea shrugged. “I would rather she be annoyed with me than let one of those morons get in her pants.”

“Fair enough,” Bryce agreed with a grimace. “Although the one boy is proving… tenacious.”

Thea’s eyes narrowed dangerously. She knew _exactly_ who her uncle was referring to. “The one that has been trailing after her like a sick puppy dog from the university. I will handle it.”

“He seems… nice.” Her uncle supplied weakly, and Thea glared.

“He _seems_ immature, annoying, selfish, and most of all, totally unsuitable for Cataline,” she shot back. “Thank the _maker_ I finished high school early. Someone needs to be at that school to keep him in line.”

“And there is no one better suited to the task than you, little Shadow,” Bryce assured her, soothing her temper before it burned into something more. “But remember: Cat is her own person. She has to make her own decisions, and,” he hesitated, looking out the window at his daughter and at the young man he already considered another son. “And her own mistakes,” he finished, his tone somewhat more resigned. “Protect her if you can, and him too, but you cannot force this. You have to let what will happen, happen.”

Thea heard his words, but in her mind the wheels were already turning. It would be a cold day in the void before she let Cataline settle, and she would see herself dead and in the ground before she gave up on her and Nate. She turned and offered her uncle a sweet smile.

“Of course, Bryce. I understand.”

 


End file.
